Until this week, I had never heard of Cynthia Heimel.

Her Wikipedia page describes her as a columnist and foremost the author of satirical books known for their unusual titles, aimed at a female readership, as well as a playwright and television writer. 

Lilith magazine, in their tribute to her in 2018 following her death at 70 of early-onset dementia, described readers pouring over Heimel’s columns "in the SoHo Weekly News (where she worked in the 1970s before she became a regular columnist at The Village Voice) as someone might read Talmudic text."

Heimel's writing was intimate and bold, endearing her to readers who viewed her as a beloved friend. With her frank honesty and wise commentary about relationships, sex and the gender status quo, while prolific, she often had difficulty finding outlets that would publish her work.

For a while, she wrote a women's column for Playboy, before being canned because of the fear she would alienate male readers.

Such was the life of the early influencers, needing an entrenched media landscape to have their voices heard.  And such is the lot of many of us who, even before the Internet, were isolated in our self-described bubbles.

Here's the tribute to Heimel from Lilith magazine.